Milk, Echizen kun!
by Keisuke Cloudberry
Summary: Ryoma wasn't as perfect as they thought he was. He was called short...by someone taller than him by only four centimeters. Crack pairing, you've been warned.


**Title**: Milk, Echizen-kun!

**Warnings:** Crack pair, oh the usual. XD

**Pairing**: Ryoma Echizen x Tachibana Ann (told 'ya it's gonna be crack XP)

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Prince of tennis, not even a plushy.

**Summary**: They say milk makes you taller. Ryoma wants to grow tall but he hates milk…and being called short by someone who's only four centimeters taller than him.

* * *

Echizen Ryoma wasn't as perfect as they thought he was. True, he seemed really perfect. He played tennis like a god, his intelligence was quite high too and his looks were really good, especially in the eyes of certain fangirls, namely Osakada Tomoka. He may not show that he's proud of those facts, but he actually is. Though there was one thing that Ryoma didn't like about his self. It was his height. He was called short, mostly by anyone taller than he was. And he didn't like it, not one bit.

The practice had just ended, and Ryoma was packing all of his stuff on his trusty bag. It still bothered him a bit that he was short though. A while ago, Momoshiro had just given him a new name, Prince shorty. He had dealt with the name ochibi already, and that was enough. Prince shorty is not acceptable. No.

"Oi, Prince shorty!" Momoshiro called out to the boy, waving his hands high up on the air as he hollered.

And sempai's off.

Momoshiro ran towards the direction of the capped boy. Ryoma only shrugged and shouldered his bag. Momoshiro began to ask, "Oi, where're ya heading to?"

"Home," was Ryoma's quick answer to his sempai. Momo just looked at him walk away.

"Aren't you going to eat some burgers with me after practice?" Momoshiro asked. The white capped boy only shook his head and didn't bother to look back at him.

Kikumaru Eiji appeared behind Momoshiro and gave the second year a hug. "Nya Momo, I think 'prince shorty' did it, huh? Nyaa, ochibi looks so irritated."

"Ahh."

They watched their kouhai disappear from their sights.

* * *

Ryoma was walking down the road to home, thinking of how short he was again. Fuji-sempai and Tezuka-buchou said that it was only normal for his age but look at their heights. They were only two years older than he was but their heights, they were a lot of inches taller than he was! Usually he wouldn't be so bothered about these kinds of things. He should be cool. But something just made him annoyed whenever someone calls him short, or pipsqueak or shorty or even cute little bunny (which was from a bunch of fangirls)!

He continued to walk until a certain vend-o-machine caught his attention. Ponta, his one and only friend. He decided to get himself some drink and lounge around the place. He wasn't in a hurry to get home anyway. He'd probably get the same treatment from his father. He just wanted to get away from all of them and live life without being called short, even for just one minute.

He inserted the coin, and then waited for his dear Ponta to drop. Finally, some peace and quiet. No more of being called shorty, no more annoying sempais and no more—

"Hey shorty!"

Ah, one minute is over, splendid.

He sighed in front of the machine then picked his Ponta up. He turned around to look who has joined the club of calling him short. His eyes widened in surprise at the person in front of him. He then looked around and scanned the place again. Ah, so that's why she's here. Street tennis courts.

"Tachibana-san." Ryoma remarked and popped the can open. He took a sip on his drink and looked at her again. "You're still hanging out on this place, huh."

"Mm!" Ann nodded and waved her hands at him. "So? What's shorty-kun doing in here alone and without his dear sempais?"

"Hn." Ryoma grunted and gave her a serious look. Ann merely blinked. "I just passed by. What about you, Tachibana-san, why are you around here alone as well?"

Ann smiled sheepishly at him, "Well, my friends left a while ago and I just planned on staying here for quite a bit."

"Oh." Ryoma mumbled, fixing his bag on his shoulders again. "Well, I guess I better go now."

"Ah, wait, Echizen-kun!" Ann took hold of his wrist before he can even move a step. Ryoma turned and looked at her with his cat-like eyes. "Would you like to play a match with me before you go home?"

"Heeeh?" Ryoma's lips curled up into a smirk. Ann let go of his wrist and waited for what he was going to say next. "That's very brave of you to challenge me, Tachibana-san."

Ann giggled a bit, then placed her hands on her hips and readied to give him a swift and clever remark. "Well, it's not really that threatening when the opponent's shorter than you, is it, Shorty-kun?"

Ryoma's smirk quickly turned into a frown.

* * *

"I hope that you won't regret this, Tachibana-san…" Ryoma said, bouncing the ball repeatedly as he got ready to serve. Ann readied herself for his serve. "Your loss is guaranteed."

"Then if you win without me scoring a single point, I'll never call you shorty again nor let anyone call you that when I'm around." Ann offered and waited eagerly for his serve. "That a deal?"

Ryoma's lips formed a smirk yet again, then tossed the ball up high. It quickly dropped and hit his racket. "Sure!"

"Shorty-kun, you can do better than this!" Ann quickly ran towards the direction of the ball and hit it, successfully returning it to his court. "Has your skill gone down?"

Ryoma ran towards the ball, and gave her a swift counter attack, effectively scoring a point. "15-love, does that answer your question?"

"Just don't go easy on me, ne Shorty-kun?" Ann quipped again. Ryoma's faced turned serious once more as he placed his racket over his shoulders and went back to the baseline to hit another serve.

"I won't." Ryoma said and served again, and this time, a Twist Serve. Ann, of course, wasn't able to hit it. And that results to 30-love. "…Ace."

"Mou, you're not really gonna let me score a point, are you?" Ann pouted and placed the racket over her shoulders as well. "That's nice."

They continued on with the game, with Ryoma in the lead of course. Ann was sure she's gonna lose, considering that the score after just a few minutes is now 4-0. She was also sure that Ryoma was willing to win this without any fault. And that just proved her theory that he doesn't really want to be called short or undersized. That's was amusing, for her that is. She loved annoying people…that was her hobby anyway.

"Ne Shorty-kun, your pace is going down!" She shouted as they continued on playing, she had just returned one of his normal serves. "Maybe you want me to win this because you like being called shorty?!"

"You'll never score a point from me, Tachibana-san." Ryoma stated and hit her return, scoring another point. "It's almost match point."

"Eh? It's only almost 5-0, a lot of things could happen." Ann threw the ball up high and got ready to hit. "Here I go, Shorty!"

Ryoma shrugged and positioned himself. "Whatever you say, Tachibana-imouto."

That completely distracted her and failed to hit the ball. She crossed her arms and looked at him straightly. "Who told you to call me that? You aren't allowed to call—"

"Game set, won by me." Ryoma smirked and played with the ball on his hands. "One more game and I win."

Ann smirked at his actions. "You're pretty clever aren't you?"

"No." Ryoma turned his back on her and got ready for his service game. "I'm just smarter than you."

Ann smirk got wider. Very clever, indeed.

They continued with the game…

"Match point." Ryoma announced proudly, getting a tennis ball from his pockets. "I win this. But just to make sure, I'll give you a twist serve."

Ann stood seriously and concentrated on the game. After a few seconds, Ryoma did his serve. Ann ran towards the ball, determined to return it. It was a miracle. She hit it back. Into his court. Ryoma's eyes widened. Someone just returned his serve. He shook his head and chased the ball, hitting it successfully.

"Game and Match, won by Echizen Ryoma." Ann smiled at him. Ryoma blinked at her. "Too bad that you were able to chase that, I would've scored a point."

Ann and Ryoma went near the net and shook hands.

"It was a good game." Ryoma admitted, continuing to shake her hand. "Even though you were totally crushed, you didn't give up. And you even managed to hit my twist serve."

Ann nodded. "Yeah. And I guess you proved me wrong. Short people can play tennis well too…" She said sarcastically.

"You call me short?" Ryoma raised brows on her. "You're only a few centimeters taller than me, and I'll surely grow when I reach my second year."

Ann chuckled. "That'll happen. But for now, you're still undersized."

"We had a deal; you said you won't call me short. Don't break the deal so fast…" Ryoma complained. Ann shook her head.

"I told you I won't call you _short _right? That didn't mean that I can't call you any other words with the same meaning as that." Ann cleverly remarked.

"Unfair." Ryoma grunted and looked down on the floor, then looked at her again. "Then what am I supposed to do to stop everyone from calling me short?"

Ann playfully smiled at him, and then pulled down his cap, which left him dumbfounded. "Milk, Echizen-kun!"

Ryoma only stared at her.

"Oh! I gotta run! I'm meeting up with a special friend right now!" Ann stated as she looked at her watch. "I better go, Echizen-kun! He's gonna be angry if I come late for our date. I told him I'd be treating him cake. Well, see you then Echizen-kun! Bye!"

With that, she grabbed all of her things and ran off, leaving the prince alone again.

"A-ah."

* * *

**_The next day…_**

"Nyaa!" Seigaku's acrobatic player exclaimed, running towards their little kouhai. "Ochibi, are you sick?!"

"No." He simply said, sipping on his drink. "I'm not."

"Nyaa, but—"

"It was her fault."

Kikumaru Eiji did nothing but stare at him. It was the weirdest thing that happened to little ochibi ever since...forever. When he came back to his senses, he realized that the tennis prince had already left him alone. He stomped on the floor again and again as he called out to Momoshiro.

"Momo! Ochibi's drinking milk!!"


End file.
